Kim and I took the *long* way home after I picked her up at the doctor on my way home from work. Somehow we were going through Eagan into Rosemount and ended up in St. Paul. While I was getting back on the right course (now at the Xcel and 35E), Aaron and I happened to be very close together and we all needed food. I asked him “where do you want to go?”
We ended up at the Chatterbox Pub off of Ford Pkwy in St. Paul. I had visited the Chatterbox in Minneapolis with Aaron at least twice but possibly three times, so Kim and I were looking forward to checking out this location as well.
Much larger than the Minneapolis Chatterbox, this one has quite a bit of room to do just about anything you want. Decorated like Grandma’s house with old school paintings, gaudy couches, and lots and lots of board games there is plenty to do before and after eating.
The service was exceptional tonight and of course Aaron knew one of the waitresses who used to work at the Lake Street Garage (now under new management and not all that great I hear). Aaron ordered his signature item (the grilled cheese), sans tomato, as usual. Kim went with fried pickles for the appetizer and Lager Chicken Strips. I went with their Pot Roast. All seemed like good choices :)
The Cornmeal Fried Dill Pickles are described as a southren favorite made even better with a unique parmeasan curry mustard dipping sauce. They came out and were good looking. The parmesan curray mustard sauce was weird and the pickles didn’t taste like pickles. We preferred the fried pickles at the Groveland Tap over these and while I ate most of them it was for exploratory purposes only — not out of real enjoyment.
Our orders were out fast. Even though it was just starting to get busy I was still impressed with their promptness in this laid back place. My meal was described in the menu as “Slow Cooked Pot Roast: tender beef and root vegetables cooked low and slow then topped with our mellow horseradish sour cream, served on our roasted red pepper mashed potatoes, and our home style dinner rolls.”
I didn’t care for the dish at all and didn’t even finish it (as I normally will do). There wasn’t much meat to it and the “root” veggies were overpowering. The mashed potatoes didn’t do it for me at all but at least the two dinner roles saved some of my overall disappointment. I wouldn’t recommend their pot roast to anyone. If you’re looking for good pot roast at a bar try Kieran’s Irish Pub in Minneapolis (also here and here).
Kim ordered their Lager Batter Chicken strips which she had at their Minneapolis location. She described those as “the best chicken strips ever!” These, however, came with a honey mustard sauce of some sort that she wouldn’t even touch. She asked for a side of ranch and it came out loaded with what tasted like cumin. She was NOT pleased. She ended up taking them home but I’m sure she won’t eat them.
After I finished my food, I ended up playing a quick game of Super Mario Brothers (old school 8-bit) on their NES machine. It was crazy weird playing an old-school machine on an old-school couch while the unit was hooked up to an LCD TV ;)
See all the pictures from today here (mobile) and Aaron’s photos here (Flickr).
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